To Mr the Prefect of Paris
by Auroshara
Summary: A National Guardsman, artillery captain, ex-rifleman serving Javert, writes a short letter to the prefect of police of Paris regarding the insurrection of June 1832 and the suicide of Javert following it. A touching and tragic point of view coming from the "other side of the barricade".


_[Letter from Armand Lacroix, artillery captain, to the Prefect of Paris, after the events of June 1832 and the suicide of Javert.]_

Mr. the Prefect of Paris,

Let me establish the base of my letter around an event that has been carried to your knowledge a few days ago; a body has been found in the River Seine by a fisherman, and the policemen in faction at this time identified this body as Inspector Étienne Javert from your services.

In the mean time, your Municipal Guardsmen, sent by your orders, were collecting the bodies of the National Guardsmen who have fallen at the barricades. They were around seventy-five, including ten losses to claim in my artillery unit. One of my artillery officers has been directly killed at sight by the chief of the Republican revolutionaries.

How can you explain your silence on these events, Mr. Prefect? I do not understand and I refuse to understand. These Guardsmen were conscripts, and most specially, they were soldiers. They earn the national funerals and honours. How many died for your cause? They perished to protect the Monarchy, that they might not even approve of. If a soldiers unit earned a reward more than anything, it is them.

Have you been there, Mr. Prefect, hidden in the shadows of that night where the bodies of my men vanished so the passers would not have to see them at the first lights of morning? Were you there, Mr. Prefect, when wives cried and children wept? I was there, Mr. Prefect, and I had nothing more to offer to those civilians who have lost all, nothing more than my hand to put on their shoulders.

And can you feel more righteous than Inspector Javert, who knew me when I was sixteen ? Him who would be strict but fair and who would not punish another if he did not punish himself for the same fault. He is easily the only one of us who did not murder any innocent, hit any innocent, offended any innocent. What is your reward for him ? Not even any funeral – just the passage in a newspaper of a « body found in the Seine ».

Enough! enough, Mr. Prefect – of your celebrations paid at the regret of the taxpayer, of the late nights at the Prefecture, of the deaths at the barricades far from your knowledge, and the ignorance of the police inspector who helped at the return of a normal criminal rate in Paris.

The monarchy is a scourge for France, that kills young men and hides it from the people. I will not serve it anymore. What was my purpose in here ? I was protecting Javert, who saved my life when I was serving the Emperor. By a fault that is common to us both, I failed to this mission. I have no purpose to remain a soldier anymore.

I give you my dismissal, Mr. Prefect, with the deepest disgust for you and your regime. I had enough tears for your mistakes and your thirst for power.

If you want to send your gendarmes after me, and God knows that you will wish it, then do so. I will not be enough alive anymore for them to arrest me.

I will order to my unit of riflemen to shoot me in the morning this letter will arrive to you. They will throw my body with the rest of my comrades-at-arms.

And if, by chance, you have a breath of repentance, here is my last will.

First, you shall give a correct funeral to Inspector Javert, the most righteous man in this government.

And, most importantly, you shall erect a monument in Paris to all the National Guardsmen, Municipal Guardsmen and civilians fallen for the terrible days of June 1832.

For the people of France – for the interests of France – for the broken lives of children and widows – for the sake of peace and innocence – and against useless wars and useless bloodsheds.

Farewell,

Armand Lacroix,

ex- Artillery Captain at the 1st company of the National Guard.

 _[After this letter, soldiers reported the order of their commandant to create a firing squad. Lacroix ordered to shoot at himself; orders have been obeyed._

 _The Prefect, in knowledge of these events, ordered to build a monument to the memory of Guardsmen and civilians dead during the insurrection of June 1832.]_


End file.
